Please help me welcome Katalina Leon, co-author of The Strix!

My name is Katalina Leon and writing this book was a very special experience for me that resulted in quite a few surprises and firsts. This was my first NANO project. This was my first time co-authoring a book series. This was my first book partially channeled by a dead friend and this is my first book with Loose Id Publishing.

The Bag Of Tricks book series was the first time I truly collaborated with another author, Amber Skyze. The series was Amber’s idea based on her annual trips to Salem Massachusetts and the fun of visiting a Wiccan shop with girlfriends and having fortunes told. The wish bag filled with magical stones was her idea. When I was a young and single I would have found the idea of seeking out a little magical guidance to see if I was going to be lucky in love pretty irresistible. Amber came up with idea of four girlfriends in their early thirties who were close in college, reuniting for a Halloween weekend in Salem. Each heroine chooses a wish stone from the bag and has her fortune told. What the girls don’t know is the moment they make a wish they fall under some heavy enchantment and their lives become rocket ship rides of unexpected adventure. Of course every story is also populated with gorgeous supernatural men.

In “The Strix” Arcona enters a parallel world. She’s an innocent historical researcher in her current lifetime but she once was a strong spirited and desperate Celtic captive of Rome in 78 AD, who practiced dark witchcraft. She comes face to face with that lifetime and a man she should have loved but instead abused. Tyr was a condemned gladiator who loved Arcona and wanted to buy her freedom but ended up being turned into an immortal flesh and blood weapon with a badly damaged soul. After two thousand years of heartless misery as a Slayer dedicated to the gods of war, Tyr has had enough and wants it all to end. Meeting the reincarnation of the original Arcona in Salem is Tyr’s sole opportunity to be free of the Slayer’s curse. He kidnaps Arcona intent on breaking the curse and dragging Arcona into death with him, but their hard start quickly turns into something more complex and tender as old memories and motivations rush forward. For the first time in two thousand years Tyr begins to feel love again and his plans change drastically.

This is an excerpt from “The Strix”. In this scene Arcona has escaped a witch’s shop and fallen straight into the hands of handsome stranger, who happens to be waiting for her in a dark alley the moment she steps outside the shop. The man she meets is named Varn. He owns an odd bar named Slayers that’s peopled with more strange men…

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A cursed amber amulet unearthed in Pompeii flings Arcona into a past life of witchcraft, bloodshed, revenge, and sexual slavery to the cruel Master of a gladiatorial school. This violent parallel world is populated with “Slayers,” blood-drinking immortals devoted to the gods of war and mayhem.

As a Strix, or malignant witch, Arcona once used sex and blood rituals to create a race of immortal warriors to unleash on Rome. Now it’s time to pay.

The gladiator Tyr was one desperately lonely lover she betrayed. Against his will, she turned him into Upir Likhyi, a foul vampire. For two millennia he’s lived a grim existence as a Slayer, in constant sexual arousal yet denied release; now, he’s pissed off and wants revenge. He kidnaps Arcona, planning to drink her dry and break the curse.

Along the way Arcona and Tyr relive their sexual slavery at the hands of Rome and blood sport in the arena, but the real magic is they forgive and fall in love.

About the author

I’m an artist, an author, mother and wife. I write for Loose Id Publishing and Ellora’s Cave. I try to bring a touch of the mystical and a big sense of adventure to everything I write because I believe there’s a bold, kick-ass heroine inside all of us who wants to take a wild ride with a strong worthy hero.

davincikittie

Sue "DaVinciKittie" Brown-Moore is a veteran romance blogger and reviewer and the primary voice for GraveTells.com. Sue and GraveTells have won several blogging awards, and GraveTells recently celebrated its five-year anniversary! Sue is also a freelance Developmental Editor passionate about helping authors bring out the best in their stories. She loves reading romance, fantasy, and sci-fi and edits any genre she reads for pleasure. You can follow Sue's editing blog, with tips and tricks for authors, at DaVinciKittie.com.

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